Green Tea! Not Coffee, but close enough?

Hello readers! For today’s blog (well I should say tonight), I’m going to  do something a bit different. I’m going to venture into the world of tea. You may think “Pfbbbt! This is supposed to be a coffee blog, tea doesn’t count” but you are….. really freaking super duper full of poop…er wrong. Although different in taste, tea is (for the most part) a healthier alternative to coffee. My particular favorite, green tea, is jam packed full of anti-oxidants and other healthy science things. It also packs a ton of caffeine, serving the same purpose as coffee. It is for this reason that I have Tazo’s Zen Green Iced Tea as my choice for today.

Before starting with the tasting, let’s get some green tea vibes going. For some reason, whenever I think of green tea, I think of hippies. Hippies aren’t bad people. In fact, they are really good people sometimes. All that acid short dropped short-circuited them every once in a while and caused them to forget where their house is, but I think the weed helped chill them out. It is due to these chilled out acid trippers association with the ganga that green tea seems to work in my brain. Sure, Mr. Hendrix lit his guitar on fire, but I’d like to think that after going nuts on stage he kicked back with some groupies and drank tons of green tea to help him relax… or consumed something green at least…

Anyway, I got really off-topic, so time to return to my tea. Zen Green Tea boasts that it is a simple green tea with hints of spearmint and lemongrass. These added hints of flavor help to create the refreshing taste I love in green tea. The spearmint isn’t overpowering, it doesn’t send you to some icy, mountainous region full coldness with  Lindsey Stirling, but it does provide that needed minty-ness to the equation. To add to the mind, in comes the lemongrass. You must be thinking, spearmint and lemongrass? Tazo must be on CRAZY PILLZ! But it works so well! The lemongrass is subtle, like adding lemon to a glass of water, it simply enhances the flavor from boring water to “HOLY CRAP! MY WATER IS CITRUSY!”

Making the tea is simple. Get some hot water. Pour it over some green tea bags. Let that water steep for 5 minutes. Take the teabags out and then dilute the concentrated tea with equal parts water. Bam. You now have green tea. So why don’t we taste it?

First Sip: Summer comes along

Second Sip: Me and green tea are gonna be friends

Third Sip: Say it aint so, green tea! You can’t already be gone!

Green tea is much like summer for me. I get it, I enjoy it and relax, and forget I have stuff to do until I realize that summer is already gone, along with my green tea. If you are not a coffee person (it’s okay if you’re not. Perfection is not for everyone), then I strongly recommend trying green tea. If you must sweeten it, don’t put sugar, but throw in some honey from a local beekeeper (it will help with your allergies. Some science things about the bees and pollen that I don’t want to get into because I will never finish this blog by midnight and I doubt you want to read five more paragraphs explaining the wonderful world of bees).  Thanks for reading, and enjoy your summer! 

Caffe Verona: The Classiest Coffee You Will Ever Experience.

Hello all! As the semester begins to wind down, the assignments begin to pile up and the stress begins to build. It is due to the eminent doom of the coming finals that I have decided to do a blog that will help to relax you as you study for those tests and pound out those papers. It is for this reason that I have chosen my favorite coffee provided by Starbucks, Caffe Verona.

Verona is a blend that can be best described in one word: classy. This coffee is smooth and suave, filling your senses with chocolaty, roasty, goodness.  For me, it’s everything a good blend of coffee should be. It keeps a balance between a smooth body and subtle acidity. It’s the kind of coffee that I imagine one would drink: at home, snuggled up in a blanket and watching Disney movies; at two in the morning trying to stay awake in order to type up that last paragraph of a ten page paper; or at a ritzy coffee tasting event (I don’t know if such a place exists, but due to my love of coffee, I like to tell myself that it does). With this in mind, I will briefly walk you through a tasting of Verona. Keep in mind, my adoration for this blend provides a strong bias, but I believe the bias is justified.

In order to fully enjoy this tasting, I put on some mood music.  

The first sip of Verona is always the best sip of coffee you will ever enjoy… until you get to the second sip. Verona is typically a dessert coffee. It carries undertones of chocolate and nuts, therefore I encourage you to eat a chocolate chip cookie or five while drinking it. If you don’t have chocolate chip cookies, anything else chocolate works just as good… and if you don’t have chocolate in your house, you probably aren’t a good person and should leave my blog immediately (just kidding… but seriously… get some damn chocolate!). I can’t simply describe one sip, due to the euphoric state I am transported to upon drinking this coffee, but I can describe my emotions as my cup slowly travels from a state of overflowing to a state of emptiness. They go as follows:

Full Cup: Happy

Half Full: Still Happy, but know the end is soon

Empty Cup: “HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!?!?!? I MUST HAVE MORE!”

I sound like a drug addict, but I can’t help it! Verona is the best coffee I have had to date. Other coffees, such as Bella Donavon from Blue Bottle, are fantastic, but I don’t think anybody has been able to achieve so fine a blend as Starbucks’ Caffe Verona. It’s like a chocolate cello of sound and my mouth is the lucky recipient of this beautiful concerto concerto.  While drinking it, I I do believe Andrea Bocelli Singing Por Ti Volare in the background would be ideal, but sadly, he is otherwise occupied and is actually quite expensive as a private entertainer, so I must be satisfied with his presence on Youtube.

Well, that is all I have time for, so hopefully you enjoyed this blog and I pray that it helped you relax.  Thanks for reading!

                Nathan

Grady's Cold Brew (Smoother Than Michael Jackson)

Hello everyone!

              First, play this song before you begin reading and let it play as you read. Second, I would like to apologize for this blog being bit later than usual. I’ve been on Spring Break and my brain really doesn’t want to do some more blogging. But, I have finally slain the beast of procrastination and picked another coffee to taste. Today I picked Grady's Cold Brew. Grady’s is interesting due to a very complicated way they process the coffee which I didn’t quite understand and I don’t think many people do. As best as I can understand, they brew coffee through a filtration system that brews the coffee cold rather than hot, unlike most ice coffees, which are brewed hot and then poured over ice. This makes for a unique blend of coffee that has made Grady’s rather popular in New York, where it originated.

              

            I actually acquired this blend from a friend of mine who insisted I try it after I explained to him my blog. Honestly, at first thought, Grady’s sounded rather… Okie to me. I imagined a bunch of Hillbillies jumping around a giant iceberg made of coffee, hyped up on coffee and singing Cotton Eye Joe. Whilst looking for a version I recognized, I found many strange versions of Cotton Eye Joe, One Remix was most amusing.  After making some very unfortunate guesses as to what this blend would taste like (moonshine, corn, chicken, unfortunate marital decisions, etc.), I decided to take a sip.

First sip: Smooth

Second Sip: Smoother

Rest of the cup: Smoothest

                This off coffee must have been brewed by mostly-white Michael Jackson himself. Smooth and light, but maintaining enough of that darkness to keep it dancing on my tongue (sorry if that offends you, but… I don’t care). The coffee was wonderful, and I suggest you try it for yourself. To buy some of this delicious coffee brewed by the king of pop himself, visit the Grady’s website hyperlinked in the blog. Other than that, Enjoy the fantastic smoothness of Mr. Jackson whilst you continue to read other blogs.